Was Constitutional Convention Really a Liberal Coup?

what would we learn from these?

Truth rather than conjecture.
can you be specific??


We are established as a coumpound Republic.

Here. I'll copypasta one of my personal pdf files for reference to what it was that the people of the time wanted. And accomplished. Sorry, I don;t feel like formatting it to fit in a web page.

Principle 6 of the 12 basic principles of the traditional American philosophy of government....


A Principle of The Traditional American Philosophy

6. Decentralized Government

". . . true barriers [bulwarks] of our liberty in this country are our State governments . . ." (Thomas Jefferson, 1811
letter to Destutt de Tracy)

The Principle

1. The traditional American philosophy teaches that
decentralization of governmental power, to the maximum
practicable extent, is essential to the security of Man's
God-given, unalienable rights.


Man's Unalienable Rights and "States Rights" Doubly
Protected


2. It asserts that these rights are most securely protected by a
federated system of government--consisting of a central
government (a Republic) and State governments (each a
Republic). Under this system, the whole quantity of
governmental power is not only limited by written
Constitution, Federal and State, but also decentralized so that
the vast majority of powers are kept on the State and local
levels. The correct definition of a Republic is: a constitutionally
limited government of the representative type, created by a
written Constitution--adopted by the people and changeable
(from its original meaning) by them only by amendment--with
its powers divided between three separate branches:
Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The American system is "a
compound Republic"--a federation, or combination, of central
and State Republics--under which: "The different governments
will control each other . . . ," while within each Republic there
are two safeguarding features: (a) a division of powers, as well
as (b) a system of checks and balances between separate
departments: "Hence a double security arises to the rights of
the people." (The Federalist, number 51, by Madison.)


Greater Quantity of Power Retained by Each State


3. By far the greater quantity and variety of power was
retained by the government of each State when the United
States Constitution was framed and adopted in 1787-1788.
Only a comparatively small part of each State's power was
delegated by its people to the new central, or Federal,
government--chiefly the powers concerning "war, peace,
negotiation and foreign commerce" (per The Federalist,
number 45 by Madison). This delegated-power
government--the central Republic--was granted few and
limited powers; while each State's government is a full-power
Republic under the State Constitution, subject to its
restrictions, also to that grant, and to the few restrictions
specified expressly in the United States Constitution as
applying to the governments of the States.


"Home Rule" the Basic, Controlling Principle

4. This federated system of decentralized power is a chief
characteristic of the American governmental arrangements.
This is in keeping with the controlling intent of those who
framed and adopted each of its Amendments. The main aim
was to preserve maximum "Home Rule" by the States, to keep
the greatest feasible quantity of power as close as possible to
the source--the people--where they can best watch it alertly
so as to check and prevent its abuse or misuse, as well as to
prevent its unsound, or unnecessary, expansion, to the peril or
perhaps doom of their liberties.


Economic Liberty and Decentralized Government

5. Such decentralized government is favorable, indeed
essential, to America's traditional philosophy and system of
economic liberty--the inseparable and indispensable economic
aspect of the indivisible whole of Individual Liberty-
Responsibility. This includes the system of individual, private,
competitive enterprise (called Individual Enterprise--the term
used by President Jefferson in his 1801 Annual Message to
Congress). This system features a free-market economy--free
from Government-over-Man controls, although subject to just
regulation as authorized by the Constitution's pertinent
provisions) under just laws expressive of "just powers" (to use
the term of the Declaration of Independence) designed to
protect the equal rights of all Individuals and thus to
safeguard sound competition--which gives full play to
individual initiative inspired by the incentive of economic
liberty of The Individual and is a main characteristic of the
traditional American philosophy. This right is not a goal or
end, in and of itself, but a necessary means, and it is an
essential and main support of Man's unalienable rights. It
involves freedom of choice by both producer-seller and
consumer-buyer, subject always to the potently persuasive
influence of community opinion and standards in the sound
environment of an ethical society which emphasizes the duty
factor of Individual Liberty-Responsibility, including due
respect for the equal rights of others. This means that the
central government is limited strictly to the consistent role of
mere regulation (not control) to those ends--regulation as
limited by the Constitution. This excludes any control by the
central government directly or indirectly of the whole or any
part of the national economy, which includes all of the
people's economic activities.
The free-market economy is controlled by the people as a
whole through their acting as buyers and sellers--a multitude
of Individuals generally acting individually as both buyer and
seller of things or services a number of times each day in the
ordinary course of life's daily activities, involving transactions
great or small--through their exercise of freedom of choice
daily, even hourly; for example, the free-market economy is
both a result and instrument of the exercise of this freedom of
Individuals--not a mechanistic, independently operating
"Thing" which oppressively controls human beings.


Sample Warnings by The Founders


6. The American people and their leaders in 1776-1787 were
determined that the central government should never be
allowed to possess power to act, or be permitted to act, as a
"consolidated" government with sovereign, unlimited power
over all of the people and things in the country. Vigilant friends
of Individual Liberty, including for example leaders such as
Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton and
James Madison, warned repeatedly and emphatically against
the danger of ever permitting such a government to exist in
America.


Samuel Adams' Opinion

7. Samuel Adams, firebrand patriot-leader always in the lead
for both American Independence and Man's Liberty against
Government-over-Man, expressed fear in this regard in 1789
(letter to Richard Henry Lee) in keeping with his never varying
sentiments. He said that he feared misinterpretation of the
Constitution would bring about fully centralized (consolidated)
power in the Federal government at the expense of the States
and "sink both in despotism."


Hamilton's Opinion

8. In the New York Ratifying Convention in 1788, Hamilton
warned sharply that the States' powers reserved under the
Constitution must be safeguarded for the sake of Individual
Liberty and that Congress would never fail to safeguard them:
". . . unless they become madmen."


Hamilton and Madison in "The Federalist"

9. This sound line of thought was stressed by Hamilton and
Madison, in their joint report in The Federalist (for example,
numbers 17 and 28 by Hamilton, and 45 and 46 by Madison),
recording the intent of the 1787 Framing Convention as
expressed in the Constitution. The foregoing sentiments of
these leaders were shared by their fellow leaders and the
American people in general of that day--as reflecting truly
American principles--and by Jefferson second to none.


Jefferson's Opinion

10. In his First Inaugural Address as President, Jefferson
stated that the State governments are "the surest bulwarks
against anti-republican tendencies"--that is, tendencies which
conflict with the American form of government: a Republic. He
stated in a letter to Destutt de Tracy (1811): "But the true
barriers [bulwarks] of our liberty in this country are our State
governments . . ." With regard to the people's freedom from
Government-over-Man controls by the Federal government, in
keeping with the Constitution's limits on that government's
power, Jefferson stated in his Annual Message to Congress, in
1801: "Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation,
the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when
left most free to individual enterprise." In the above-
mentioned 1811 letter, Jefferson also discussed the
prospective use of the Militia of the States--all acting
together--to resist the forces of any Federal usurpers acting in
violation of the Constitution to oppress or dominate the people
or government of any State.


Some Peaceable Remedies of the People Against an Offending Federal Government

11. Some of the peaceable remedies of the people of any State
against what they consider to be anti-Constitution, or
otherwise offensive, conduct by the Federal government--by
any of its Branches, or by all of them combined--as
contemplated by the Convention which framed the
Constitution, were specified in The Federalist number 46 by
Madison, with silent acquiescence of his co-author Hamilton,
as follows:

"On the other hand, should an unwarrantable
measure of the federal government be unpopular in
particular states, which would seldom fail to be the
case, or even a warrantable measure be so, which
may sometimes be the case, the means of opposition
to it are powerful and at hand. The disquietude of the
people, their repugnance and perhaps refusal to
co-operate with the officers of the union, the frowns
of the executive magistracy [officials] of the state,
the embarrassments created by legislative devices,
which would often be added on such occasions,
would oppose in any state difficulties not to be
despised; would form in a large state very serious
impediments, and where the sentiments of several
adjoining states happened to be in union, would
present obstructions which the federal government
would hardly be willing to encounter."
The most extremely "unwarrantable measure" is an
unconstitutional measure. Madison here expressed the
understanding also of those who framed the Constitution and
of their fellow leaders in the State Ratifying Conventions as
well as of the people in general--all extremely jealous of their
hard-won liberties and determined to act vigorously against
any danger to them from the greatly feared, central
government if it should ever threaten to over-step the limits
imposed on its powers under the constitution, as amended.
Protests by State legislatures against what they would
consider to be abuses of power or usurpations, potential or
actual, by the central government were of course included as a
main element in what Madison referred to her as "legislative
devices . . . impediments . . . obstructions." Actual examples
occurring afterward are the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
of 1798 and the Hartford Convention Resolutions of 1815
(discussed in Principle 3, Pars. 5-6). Some additional remedies
of the people, of a peaceable nature, are political action--use
of the ballot in elections--and amendment of the Constitution
by the people (Art. V); while impeachment by Congress of any
officials guilty of acting as defaulting public trustees is
provided for (Art. I, Sec. 2,3).


State's Self-defense by Force, in Last Resort, per "The Federalist"


12. With regard to use by the States of force--use of their
Militia forces (all able-bodied males capable of bearing
arms)--in self-defense against any Federal usurpers seeking to
oppress or dominate one or more States by force in violation
of the Constitution's limits on Federal power, Hamilton and
Madison discussed at length and in detail in The Federalist
(numbers 28 by Hamilton and 46 by Madison) the assumption
and expectation of The Framers that all States would marshall
their forces and act jointly to crush the usurpers' forces. This
understanding of The Framers was shared by the members of
the State Ratifying Conventions and the leaders and people in
general of that day--all fearless foes of any and all enemies of
Free Man in America. They believed that all true Americans
must be ready to fight and die for Liberty, especially against
tyrannical Federal officials who, as usurpers, violate not only
the Constitution but also their oath of office: to support the
Constitution only. It was also contemplated that any
non-military force used by the Federal usurpers would be
countered by the States' use of their own non-military forces:
Sheriff's posses (posses comitatus) and any civilian police
forces. (See also Par. 12 of Principle 5.)


The Civil over The Military

13. The traditional American philosophy requires, as a
fundamental of the system of checks and balances, that The
Civil must always be in complete control of The Military. The
Founders and their fellow Americans were painfully aware of
the lesson of history that large standing armies are, in
peacetime, potentially dangerous to the people's liberties. In
1776, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, for example, made
this clear in these words: ". . . that standing armies in time of
peace should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in
all cases the military should be under strict subordination to,
and governed by, the civil power." Another, related element in
the system of checks and balances is the requirement of the
Constitution (Article VI) that all Federal officials--both civil and
military--take an oath to support the Constitution [only]; with
the result that all military officers, thus controlled
fundamentally and supremely by the Constitution, must be
obedient to the civil authority--chief of all the President--but
only as to orders which are not violative of the Constitution.
The Military are, therefore, obligated by the Constitution not
only to refuse to obey any orders of Federal usurpers--
automatically made by the Constitution itself null and void
from the start--but to support the Constitution only, at all
times and under all circumstances, as the sovereign people's
fundamental law. State officials, civil and military, are likewise
so required to take an oath to support the Constitution of the
United States--meaning, in part, to resist Federal usurpers by
all necessary means: by force in last resort.


The Conclusion

14. The truly American formula, in accordance with the
traditional philosophy, for sound and enduring
self-government by means of constitutionally limited
government with adequate protection assured for Individual


Liberty, is this: Limited and Decentralized for Liberty!!!
 
One of the finest pieces of literature ever written on the topic (and much, much, more) is 'The American Ideal Of 1776: The Twelve Basic American Principles' by Hamilton Abert Long.

I'll offer the preface here. Otherwise, do or do not read it. It's your loss, no mine.


Publisher’s Note About The Book


(From the cover jacket. Note: The author was the publisher.)

The sole unifying influence spiritually, only common
denominator--for all Americans of all races, colors, religions,
creeds, ethnic origins, ages--is The American Ideal of 1776:
the subject of the book.

This Ideal’s definition--in the Declaration of Independence, in
essence--is spelled out in this unique book as an indivisible
whole: The Twelve Basic American Principles. This is 1776
Americanism.

Intelligent choice--between 1776 Americanism and
conflicting Isms (chiefly Socialism in the USA today)--requires
primarily thorough knowledge of these Principles. Not to
know them is to cheat oneself of the basic freedom: freedom
of choice, between alternatives.



Making this grave choice daily is inescapable for every adult
citizen (by acts of omission or commission, or by opinion-
forming
), confronted by problems of self-governing,
performing duties of Liberty-Responsibility, to which The
Twelve Principles are always pertinent.

This is the only book in existence which enables every
self-governing citizen to gain the needed knowledge of the
whole of these Principles, never before thus defined, not
taught in schools or colleges. Written for all Americans for all
time, this fundamental book fills a critical need for young and
old alike, will continue to do so for centuries.

Working to make the 1776 Ideal effective governmentally, to
preserve it for Posterity, is the imperative duty of every
citizen. The book is the essential tool for all who wish to be
worthy trustees for today’s children and future generations of
their just heritage: this Ideal, its eternal values and the
supporting Constitution, as The Founders intended. They
believed to default about this is to betray.

A lifetime source-book, it is invaluable for home and office
use, most importantly for everyone who seeks to offer others
guidance about this basic subject--particularly all civic and
public-opinion

The Founders’ writings are the basis of the book’s Twelve
Principles--like them, never changing. The book will therefore
never need change, will be as valid and useful a century from
now as during the Twin-Bicentennial Decade: 1976-1987 (the
200th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution). It’s
dependable scholarship is certified by eminent authorities’
commendations.

No scholar has faulted it.

(75,000 hard-cover copies in print; 3rd printing 1976)
 
Last edited:
The liberals of that time were not the "liberals" of our time. See "Classical Liberalism".

obviously I was using today's definitions so the reader would not be burdened with having to know definitions from 200 years ago.

Today's definitions technically remain the same.

The same as what? Modern-day "liberals" have nothing in common with the classical liberalism of the late 18th Century, save for some requisitioned terminology..

They're statists. Not liberal. As are most so-called conservatives in America today.

Libreralism is good conservatism. Statism is statism any way you slice it.


Trump just massively cut taxes to cut the state !! Donald is anti state and we love him!

He cut revenue, not spending. You think that's anti-state? You're joking, right?
 

New Topics

Forum List

Back
Top